Carnival Cruise. Single Mom. Part 2

What to pack? I mean come on packing for a cruise is just as important as getting on the ship. I can’t mention enough how important it is to reasearch.

If you are going on a 7 or 8 day cruise you will need full size luggage. In my previous post I included the size luggage I packed.
You will need multiple clothes best bet is to say plan on changing clothes it least twice a day, for us sometime we changed clothes 3 times just depending on what we were doing.
make sure you take a light jacket it can be a bit chilly at times on the ship and depending on what time of year you leave and where you are leaving from it may be cooler leaving and coming back
pack multiple swimsuits if you have them, swim trunks also
flip flops, boat shoes, sneakers for excursions depending on what you’re doing. heels for elegant night, or a comfortable casual sandals. You walk alot on the ship.
please don’t forget your sunscreen regardless of your skin tone I promise you need sun screen
I read that luggage can not exceed 50 pounds. I can’t speak for any other cruise line but carnival doesn’t weigh your luggage and i’m all but certain both my luggage weighed more than 50 pounds. so don’t stress and dress that but pack smart.
oh back to the shoes how many pairs? well it depends on how much of a shoe geek you are. You know you will need black and brown shoes they go with everything. I packed 10 pairs of shoes. I honestly wore about 5 pair my whole 8 day cruise. My black and brown Birkenstocks sandals were my most worn shoes my entire trip
If you don’t have reliable luggage go to walmart.com or you local Walmart. They have reasonable priced luggage that will last you years to come. I’ll make sure I post a pic of all the luggage we took.
ziplock baggies I’m the queen of zip lock baggies. Its so easy to organize in them. hair stuff, morning stuff, face stuff etc.
Pack some type of motion sickness medicine. I brought dramamine for motion sickness from Walmart. I think it was around $4 a bottle, however we didn’t use any of it. Myself and my kiddos are dolphins and love water, and luckily we had no sea seasickness.
pack a small first aid kit….trust me things happen
pack a yetti cup with a lid, or if you’re like me the ozark trail cup from Walmart work just as well and they are easier on your pocket book, so if they come up missing you aren’t going to go ballistic 🙂 They offer free juice, water, and coffee on the ship. However the cups offered are small.. Pack your own cups so that you can carry them around and arent having to refill every 40 min
What to pack for elegant night. I honesty I saw everything from prom dresses and tuxs, to sundresses and khaki and polos. It’s honestly up to how you’re feeling.
If you are on a 7 to 8 day cruise you will have two elegant nights.
Don’t forget a swimsuit cover up or two, If youre like me there were times I spent half of a day on the cruise ship in my swimsuit, and after excursions I shopped sometimes in my swimsuit, shorts, and birks.
make sure everyone has a light weight water-resistant bag pack. You will need them for the first day of the cruise in case it takes a bit of time to get your luggage to your room. It took our luggage about 4 hours after we boarded to get to our room. You can pack your swim suits, cups, sunscreen and a light jacket in them and wear them on your back to carry with you.
Your room has soap and shampoo however I packed my own soap and shampoo and conditioner just because i’m extremely particular about what I use.
The luggage tags that you have to print are longer than regular luggage tags. I had read on the internet that a person had a mishap of just tapping their room tag on their luggage and it was raining the day they boarded and it destroyed their room tag and they didn’t get their luggage til the following day. So I used their method which they called “the redneck way for luggage tags” print the luggage tag, put it in a zip lock bag….or course I have zip lock bags :-)and zip tie them on your luggage. That way if it rains your room tag wont get destroyed. I’m also quite sure you can order large luggage tags…but hey this was extremely cost-effective.
Makeup let me not forget for me, I did’t bring my mac makeup suitcase, cause thats honestly what it is. I packed some concealer, foundation, eyeliner, mascara, powder, lip gloss and liner. But honestly I rarely ever wore any of it and by the time we left Belize my skin was 5 times darker than normal so my foundation wouldn’t have matched anyway.